Self-promotery

Can an author promote their books too much? That seems to be the question of the week making the blog rounds.

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In the end, like any form of advertising, anyone who is tired of the advertising can always tune it out, or change the channel, or turn off the radio (SF Signal)...

As someone who is really into punk and goth, I have to say that I feel that any self-promotion is millimeters away from selling out. I feel queesy about charging money for the book... It feels like selling out to me, but I have to make a living somehow, and if I don't sell the books, t-shirts and such, I won't have time to write. Justine Larbalestier writes:

Accusations of being too self promotery make me a bit jittery. Promoting your books is part of a writer’s job. If no one knows the book exists how is it going to sell? A writer should be out there lining up bookshop appearances, sending out postcards/business cards/tshoshkas of some kind. You should be attending cons/trade shows/schools/libraries or whatever will help get the word out about your work. It may not have that much effect (no one really knows how to get word of mouth going*), but it might, and besides, for your own peace of mind it helps to know that you’re doing something (Justine Larbalestier.com).

Tell me about it. At book signings, as a new writer, people treat you like a caged animal in a zoo. People point you out to their children, “That is the endangered SF Writer of Heartland. Don't get to close, they are unpredictable. Be sure not to feed them or they will come to expect it from you.”

It is even harder to get the attention of an editor. So many want to be writers... If only every would be writer would be a reader... then maybe their would be more magazines and opportunities to be compensated for creative impulses. What is a writer to do?

I just witnessed the most obnoxious slush submission EVER. Someone sent us a letter informing us of the impending arrival of his brilliant new story, along with a bunch of quotes from people he knows that say how good it is. But the best (or worst) part about the submission is that it was full of red, white, and blue stars, which got all over the place when I opened the envelope. And to make things worse, they're made of some material that's very static-clingy, so they're very difficult to pick up and/or brush off your hands (The Slush God).

Not that, sure, but I can understand the frustration that would drive someone to put confetti in a submission. With an editor spending on average 2 seconds on each submission, you have to stand out somehow...

Maybe if books were moved to the front, out of the stakes based on merit rather than huge paid placement deals, it would be easier to attract an audience.

Will I stop going to cons? No way. Here is why. Read Seth Godin’s book ‘Permission Marketing.’ He talks about primary ’sneezers,’ people who spread the word about a product or something they fall in love with (think mac evangelists, or religious cultists, or in biology, Typhoid Mary). Book ’sneezers’ are the kind of people who will go to a convention or a reader at a convention, or come to a signing. So if you want to prime that pump, you need to meet sneezers, and that’s why I think cons and readings and book signings are not initially profitable, but in the long run, start the first level of word of mouth (Tobias Buckell.com).

On that note: I will be at Shoreleave this year! Hope to see you there.

What is a writer to do? Honestly, what? I blog...

Charlie Dorsett

My name is Charlie, but if your looking for my work, I go by C. E. Dorsett. I write scifi, fantasy, and a touch of horror. I like to play with gothic, steampunk, decopunk, epic fantasy, and wuxia. I love to tell stories and talk about books, movies, series, and music.

Metaphors are Important

Heinrich Zimmer once said, "The best things can’t be told; the second best are misunderstood; the third best have to do with history." Now, the vocabulary through which the best things are told as second best is the vocabulary of history, but it doesn’t refer to history; it refers through this to the transcendent. Deities have to become, as one great German scholar said, "transparent to the transcendent." The transcendent must show and shine through those deities. But it must shine through us, too, and through the spiritual things we are talking about. And as long as you keep pinning it down to concrete fact, and declare something isn’t true because it didn’t happen, you’re wrong. We don’t say that about fairy tales, and so we get the truth of them (Joseph Campbell, An Open Life).

I am quick to call upon the franchises I love for example of how life should be, or how we should act. There is a reason:

Every story is a metaphor

Every episode, movie, book, and story we tell is a metaphor. Once you learn to see that, everything will become clearer and richer.

Creative Writing “experts” like to think that the metaphors are create through proper execution of the craft. What a load of bunk!

The truth is, nearly every sentence ever written or said is a metaphor. There are layers of meaning hidden within them. More often then not, these layers hide from originator of the sentence. They are unconscious fears and desires manifesting themselves.

Every story has this secret in it. Even really bad movies, episodes, and books reveal a lot about the fears and self-imposed limits the writer is coping with.

Find the music that moves you

Certain things resonate with us because they are speaking to us on an unconscious level.

Momma Mia!
showed me that I need to stop looking for myself in my past, and learn to enjoy my present.

Were the World Mine
taught me that we all need to learn how to see the world through the eyes of the people we don’t understand so we can find ways to relate to them.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Star Trek, but I would be here forever if I tried to recount everything it taught me.

You need to find the metaphors that resonate with you, and discover the secret they are trying to share.

What tells your story?

What book, episode, series, movie, or song shares your story? What was it? Someone else might need to hear it.

Project: Shadow Manifesto

To mark the 10 year anniversary of the Project: Shadow Manifesto, we thought it was time to overhaul it again, but this time to open up the project to all of the like-minded fans out there who are tired of the status quo, and who are hungry for something new.
Brian and I drafted the original Project: Shadow Manifesto in 1999 as an outline we saw in professional publishing. The original draft was heavy on problems, light on vision, and even lighter on solutions. We took years investigating the limited options available at the time, built the original Project: Shadow, and I started writing.

In 2004, we revised the manifesto, and re-launched Project: Shadow. The new draft focused on the solutions possible through new technologies. The world/culture presented us with newer challenges.

We are fans.

We love our music, stories, characters, and settings.
We know about what we love.
We participate in what we love.
We support what we love.
What we love supports us.

At heart, a fan is not someone who enjoys a movie, a song, a band, a book, or a show. A fan feels an intense connection with the object of their love. Fans decorate their homes, offices, and desktops with items that announce their allegiance with their favorite bands, movies, shows, and books.

The problem with our popular culture is that it doesn’t blink at a sports fan wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with their favorite team, or even a replica jersey, but wear a Star Wars shirt or dress like a goth and they think they have the right to mock you.

What is the difference between a fan wearing a jersey to a game or fan bringing a light saber to a movie? Or for that matter, what is the difference between a sports fan painting themselves up to go tailgating or a fan dressing as their favorite character at a convention?

Perception. Pop Culture has classified sports fans as acceptable and speculative fiction fans as geeky. I have to say, it is just as geeky to now all of the stats for everyone who has ever played for a particular sports franchise as it is to know the stats for every creature in the Monster Manual. The only real difference is one fan accepts they are a geek, and the other pretends their geekiness is proof they are a jock.

The disapproval is the least of the problems facing today’s fan.

From Storytellers to Copyright

Problem:People are natural storytellers. We hear a story, embellish it, and pass it on.

Solution:We tell each other stories, sing songs, write books, make videos, and create art to share these stories with each other.

Every story we tell is not original. We like to tell the same stories over and over. We borrow stories from any where and retell them in our own vernacular. It is intrinsic to who and what we are to share stories with each other.

Problem: The only constant in the world is change.

Solution: We ask ourselves the question, "What if," and share the answer with each other.

Problem: Artists and Writers need to make a living singing their songs, writing their books, making their videos, and creating their art.

Solution: We establish systems of Copyright.

The Cultural Cycle

Before the era of Copyright, stories, heroes, melodies, and lyrics belonged to the people. Stories were told, and retold. Numerous visions of each story competed against each other. The best were remembered, collected, retold, embellished, and built upon. The rest were forgotten.

Who told the first story about Hercules? Or Jason? or Troy? Who started the legends of King Arthur? or Beowulf? The first tales and their countless reiterations have been lost, but the best, most iconic stories survived.

Of all of Shakespeare’s plays, only a few comedies have no obvious sources, and even they rely upon well established patterns and archetypes.

This is the Cultural Cycle that keeps important stories alive. Each generation must retell the tales of the preceding generations in their own context to keep them relevant. This cycle has been broken.

Problem: Companies lobby to prevent Intellectual Property from reentering the commons of the culture.

Problem: Companies control the instruments of culture, making it harder to engage culture creatively.

Solution: Fans retell these stories as not for profit tales, films, and songs.

Solution: Fans organize themselves into clubs and conventions.

These solutions are are not enough. Fanfiction and film relies on the good will of the copyright holders and the fact that the fans do not make money from their works to slip through the thinnest of loop hole in copyright. As a result, pop culture is unaware of the cultural developments and retelling of these new stories. The subculture may be enriched by them, but the culture as a whole is not.

The Creative Commons and the Cult of the Dollar

Problem: Publishers and producers focus more on the commercial and popular value of a work, and the creative energy of the work suffers. Readers/viewers will not become fans, and fans will not continue to accept passionless works of Speculative Fiction.

Solution: Placing honesty over consumerism, we fans must stake out our own home to create and share the works we love. We must stand between the darkness and the light: This is the purpose of Project: Shadow.

Problem: The Companies and Rights holders lashed out against the fair use of their properties.

Problem: Some Rights Holders have lulled fandom into a false sense of security by not suing and even encouraging those who produce fanworks

Creative Commons is one of many proposed solutions to this problem. Others have lobbied for copyright reform. Neither of these is a solution to the problems.

Copyright reform is a doomed enterprise while corporate lobbyists have the power they do over the congress. While it is a goal to work for, it is just not realistic in the short term.

Creative Commons is closer to a solution, but the adoption rate has not been sufficient to even start chipping away at the problem.

The reason Creative Commons is an uphill battle is that it is a major evolution in the way rights holders handle permissions to use their work, and exists without an intermediary form. Existing rights holders have not adopted it because they are unwilling to give up all the rights entailed under Creative Commons.

I approached the Creative Commons Foundation with a proposal for a Fan Works License:

Some of the rights holders I have talked to are reluctant to use the CC because they are concerned they are giving up too many rights to their works. A Fan Works License would allow rights holders to clearly state what they will allow others to do with their characters, content, and settings.

It would be a bit more complicated than a standard CC, stating whether others may make original text, video, music, or art projects based on their works. It would also allow them to set the content rating they would allow fan works to have. This could be aligned with the MPAA ratings or the ESRB ratings system or an original system. The reason for this is so a young adult novelist could set a max rating of PG-13, allowing others to know what standards they would apply to determine whether a fan work is legitimate or not.

The other terms would be the same as in the standard CC.

You may not think something like this is necessary, but the current state of fan works is hazy. While few have been sued in the last couple years, at any time, rights holders could decide to start suing again. By creating a license that covers works with the same characters and settings rather than a particular book or movie, I believe we could get more rights holders to use the license to allow for the creation of fan works, which is a step on the road to open up works to the commons.

They responded with a simple, “CC probably isn't going to be expanding the license offerings, and in fact, over the past few years CC has been reducing the number of licenses.”

I do not believe that a fanwork or Creative Commons license is the ultimate solution, but as a possible stepping stone toward an open culture.

Progressive Speculative Fiction

Problem: Modern and Post-modern fiction is antithetical to hope, imagination, and community

Problem: Success is easier through snark, hate, and discrimination.

Solution: We will promote, support and create Progressive Speculative Fiction.

What is Progressive Speculative Fiction?

Progressive Speculative Fiction is a story told in any medium which has a "What if" at its core and is filled with hope for the future and promotes a sense of community.

How can disaster fiction be progressive?

Watch a Godzilla movie or either The Day the Earth Stood Stills. If there is nothing worth saving, then there is no tragedy. The heroes must at least try to save someone or something worth saving.

How can horror be progressive?

Watch nearly any horror film made prior to 1990 or for the best example read The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker or anything by Anne Rice. If life is not worth living or there is nothing worth defending, where is the horror. If life is worthless, then death is merely a release from a nightmare. There is nothing scary about it. If there is no free will, nothing is lost by imprisonment or possession. If sanity is not worth preserving, why bother.

Mythos

Problem: The word "Myth" has become a marketing term.

Homogenized works are released more often by the industry every year. Focus groups and market analysis have replaced quality work, but since the cultural cycle is broken, industry has no alternative. It is safer to release works like the ones that sold last year than it is to seek out new talent/ideas that would be more of a risk.

They know what the fans want. We want myths, stories that speak to us on a deep level while entertaining us. Myths are hard to make. It is easy to add in a wizard or a starship and call it mythology. Fans see through it, but the masses are looking for little more than sex, violence, and humor. Speculative Fiction has been watered down to little more than:

imitation space opera

knock-off cyberpunk

repackaging of the rings

martial arts boom-boom

torture porn

They, then, wrap it in a shiny box, slap the word myth, saga, legend, or reboot on it, and wait for the masses to spend their money on it... and they usually do.

We do not need another company driven by profit margins, or another author whose self-important propaganda obscures the art.

We need writers and artists that love what they are doing.

We need fans who are not afraid to speak their minds.

We need places in our towns/cities and online where we can meet and share the few gems that we find from the industry and from the independent artist, writers, and filmmakers who are still following their bliss rather than the dollar.

That is why we are here. Project: Shadow and dashPunk will provide a platform for writers, artists, filmmakers and fans to “follow their bliss.” We are dedicated to finding and promoting the best Speculative Fiction out there: the little/well known writers, filmmakers, artists and works, fostering their talents, and helping them to not only follow their hearts, but to share that vision with others.

But we cannot do it alone!

Fandom Strikes Back

Solution: We must seek out and support the writers, artists, and producers that encourage and support fan works.

Solution: We must get writers, artists, and producers on the record about their position regarding fan works.

Solution: We must live according to our values of hope, imagination, and community.

Solution: We must build a community around hope, imagination, and community, and reject the rote cynicism that defines the faux-fandom that loves to tear things down rather than build things up.

Solution: We must spread the stories, videos, songs, and art that speak to us.

Together, We can make dashPunk and Project: Shadow more than an idea or a website, but a vibrant community of fans who share the things we love with each other.

Together, we can make it easier to find and share the things we love and find new things to love.

Together, we can build a community of fans who support and engage one another for our mutual benefit.

Alone, none of us can stand up to the corporate powers who control the music, video, text, and art that we love, but together, our voice will be heard.

Fandom is a vibrant culture with its own music (filk), events (conventions), games, and myths. Until now, we have gathered periodically, or in disparate groups.

Fandom, Porn, and a Culture of Dreamers.

When I stumbled across trobadora's The Internet is for Porn? I was initially uncomfortable with the discussion. The frank discussion of fannish sexuality is not something I am used to seeing in writing... but it is all too familiar a topic around the table over the weekends and at the cons.
I am not sure why I was so uncomfortable with the subject. It is not like I have not mentioned in on the show or in conversations with others, but this direct approach, insightful comments, and probing questions made me squirm a little in my seat.

In our fannish circles, porn is very much ... normalised, for lack of a better word. It's part of the everyday landscape, and writing it or posting it is not in any way, shape or form remarkable. (Except for the "oooh, shiny!" factor, of course.) It's even an ordinary social gesture – the "bake you cookies and write you porn" aspect (The Internet is for Porn?).

That is the moment that I started squirming. Why is it normal to talk about slash without a thought about what it is we are really talking about? It is not uncommon for the conversation to get started and in the right fan circles, the participants are open about their favorites. Is this because our fan culture is more coarse, crass, or jaded than the mainstream culture?

I don't think so. While I have been accused of having an overly bright view of the fan culture, I think it is a result of the very nature of Speculative Fiction Fandom.

Fans are generally liberal. It is easier to look forward when you are not tied to the past

Fans truly love. They do not simply like the characters, settings, and series, they have a deep love for them.

Fans are dreamers. We are not satisfied with merely watching or reading, we dream up other stories. We are constantly asking, "What if?"

Fans share. We are not content with these ideas living in our head, we share them with each other

As a result of these things, it is not surprising that we ask ourselves what it would be like if two of our favorite characters hooked up, we write the story and share it with the community.

Why are we not ashamed of the sometime sexually explicit stories we tell? I am not sure. For me, it is probably because I am gay. I am used to people looking down on me for who I love. Why would I care if they found about anything else? They already think I am a pervert. I have no where else to go from there.

Now, many of you are probably going to say, "I don't even know what your talking about."

Say you're participating in one of those other fannish spaces as well, and you're (for whatever reason) writing porn in that fandom. What do you do with it? What would you feel comfortable with?

Would you feel comfortable posting it in its own fandom, even though it would not be a normal fannish activity there?

First of all I would say there is a difference between porn and erotica. I am not parsing words, there is a very real difference. I apologize for the crass language here, but it is better to be blunt than verbose:

Porn is fiction that contains a lot of sex for the sake of getting you off.

Erotica is fiction that contains a lot of sex but the story and characterizations "cannot be summed up in diagrams" to quote Stephen Moffat.

Most of the fanfiction I am talking about is erotic because it does the latter and not the former. On that note, to answer the question, I am not sure what fan communities are being discussed where the conversation of slash does not pop up from time to time.

The only time I would not feel comfortable is if there were minors in the conversation. It is not my place to introduce these kids to a discussion of sexuality they may or may not be ready for. Other than that, I am not sure what would prevent me.

What if that fandom were mostly populated by fanboys?

Well, I find popular heterosexual male sexuality to be abrasive and overly crude. It is something that should be discussed. The flirtation present in the stories is something I think most heterosexual males would be bored by. I hope I am wrong.

The types of fanfic we are talking about are:

slash: male/male erotic fanfic

femslash: female/female erotic fanfic

hetslash: male/female erotic fanfic

PWP: porn without plot

Does it really matter who you're writing for? How much, how does it matter?

I think it does. I know I am not the only one who has wondered about the relationship between Ivanova and Talia or Sirius and Lupin. These questions are unanswered in the canon, so we are left to fill in the blanks with fanfiction.

The audience matters because well written fanfic is about the characters. Whether it is slash or not, if the story is bad, then why would I take time to read it? There are some audiences that just want PWP, and I am not in that crowd.

How much of a difference would it make whether it was an explicit sex scene in a longer fic or an all-out PWP?

Just as the audience matters, so does the content. If the story is good, and the sex is integral to the plot, the better the story will be.

Would it bother you more if the porn in question were slash or het?

A lot of the slash and het I have seen is more of an odd fantasy of the writer than a story worth spending any time with.

What if it were, say, het with a dominant male character?

This is where the problem comes in. A lot of the male dominant fiction, fanfic or not, is little more than a dose of male bravado with a side order of nudity. I prefer stories about equals.

What makes Smut

I read a lot of Speculative fiction, and sex is not absent from the "mainstream" fiction. It is hard to miss it in Anne Rice, Christopher Golden, Clive Barker, Anne McCaffrey... most SF not written or inspired by Tolkien.

I think we work ourselves into fits because, as with everything, there are some people who take it too far. Nothing can be down about these people except to ignore them.

There is nothing to be embarrassed about when we are talking about sexuality or erotica. Honestly, I think this has more to do with our popular culture and its perception of us.

In Pop Culture, sex is inherently smutty. It is a tool used to sell a product. Many movie trailers have become little more than "Watch this film and see these people naked." Under those conditions, we tend to allow ourselves to see all sex as smutty. What we have to do is establish certain personal rules:

Sex is natural.

Sex is not a game or a contest. It is not about collecting trophies.

Respect is a prerequisite. If we do not respect ourselves or our characters, it shows and it degrades everyone.

Sexually explicit stories or scenes without a grounding in character and plot are porn.

Did I make you uncomfortable? I hope not. I think it is time for some frank conversation. Now let's all sing Slash Wallow.

Back from Shore Leave

C.E. Dorsett
Shore Leave was amazing this year! This was my first convention since Liquid Sky came out, and it was wonderful!

Friday, July 7, 2006

Things were a bit confused when we arrived early on Friday. Since my panel was confirmed little over a week before the convention, no one knew what my status at the Con would be. When I received my badge, they gave me a regular attendee pass and didn't know if I would be included in any other events at the convention. I felt a great deal of support from the other attendees who supported and accepted me immediately upon my arrival. After being bounced around to several people, I got my badge fixed. They attached a program participant notice to the bottom, hopefully I will earn a guest badge in the future. I was also welcomed at the "Meet the Pros" writers' alley later that night.

The first book I sold a copy of Liquid Sky too at Shore Leave was to the wonderful people from Selmak.org. They were a great deal of fun, and good people to boot. They took a picture of me with Selmak, and I am told it will be up on their site soon.

I met a lot of wonderful people Friday night, and that night, I was seated on the "Meet the Pros" writers' alley next to Ray Villard!! As a science geek, this was like sitting next to a rock star. This man has done so much to bring science alive in my imagination and countless others.

Being there, surrounded by all of these writers that I have admired for so long was an amazing experience. After so many years on the other side of the table, I was privileged and overwhelmed. Everyone did so much to make me feel at home and at ease among so many great writers. I have to add here, Paulette, if you read this, I really enjoyed our conversation and I hope you enjoy the book.

Saturday, July 8

After such an amazing day, I was afraid of what I would find on my full day at the convention. Quickly, I found my fears were nothing but jitters. I met many wonderful people really early on. Mark, it was great to talk to you. I really felt like I met kindred spirit in you.

A high point for me was the Gay Fandom: a melding of two communities panel. I was happy to see so many GLBT people coming out to discuss the good and the bad aspects of the portrayal of GLBT people and themes in SciFi media and press. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, especially since I have found it so difficult to publish any of my stories with prominent GLBT characters and themes. I also hope to begin a relationship with Dragon Lady Productions.

That night, I met Martin and Teresa, two very cool people who hung out for the rest of the night with me. Cheers y'all.

My panel, "Anime Themes in Literature" spent most of our time discussing the differences between Japanese and American SF, and the difference being more one of style effecting content, and not content in and of itself. My thesis was simple. Japanese SF is focused more on telling and imaginative story whereas American SF is preoccupied with the definition of "odd things" as odd. Maybe I'll write an essay for the site. The panel went well.

Sunday, July 9

I got to attend the Writer's Only Breakfast! I sat next to A.C. Crispin, who is one of the reasons I became a writer. She offered me a lot of good advice, and really made me feel like a novice. She was blunt in her comments, but her words will hopefully help me as I shop "Shine like Thunder" around.

Our Breakfast was accidentally paid for by a representative from Pocket Books. A.C. Crispin became enraged, while Brian and I slipped out.

Other Notes

In short, Brian and I had a great time. Our reception at Shore Leave was amazing. I hope all of the people who we met will stay in touch. I hope you all enjoy the book and I hope to see you all next year.

After consultation with a good deal of people, we have decided to make Liquid Sky into the first Audiobook available from Podiobooks.com. I hope to have it ready soon.

Virtual Books Signings?

C.E. Dorsett
I have really mixed feelings about this...

LONDON - Margaret Atwood has had enough of long journeys, late nights and writer's cramp. Tired of grueling book tours, the Booker Prize-winning Canadian author on Sunday unveiled her new invention: a remote-controlled pen that allows writers to sign books for fans from thousands of miles away (AP on Yahoo!).

It is hard enough to attract an audience as a Non-Booker Prize winning writer, but it would be impossible with a virtual machine. This is an invention to help big wigs sell more books... not to be selfish, but what does it do for people like me?

Over the last 5 years or so, all of the best fiction I have read has been either posted to the internet or self-published because it does not follow some predetermined formula. These writers aren't huge because they don't have the money behind them to tour and promote their books... Low budgets are hard on a writer. Why would someone stop at a booth for a writer they have never heard of?

While Margaret Atwood is tired of book tours and writer's cramp, there are plenty of writers who would gladly take her promotion budget. It is one more why for well-to-do writers to distance themselves from the rest of us.